NEWS ARTICLES Of
|
|
NEWS ARTICLES Of
|
ROUTE 36 - Brings New Life to Pittsfield
|
Pittsfield is awaking from a long slumber, says John A. Beckett of Decatur. It was the paved road which aroused it from somnolence of half a century and it is the young men of the town that are stirring with new civic life. The town is the county seat of Pike county which lies between the Mississippi river and the Illinois river. It is a place of between two and three thousand people. It is seven miles off the main line of the Wabash railroad.
FOUGHT RAILROADS It is a story told, in Pittsfield, that when the Wabash was built the people fought it away from the town on the theory that it would take all the trade somewhere else. Pittsfield dldn't want a railroad. Later it was found that the town did need a railroad, indeed had to have a railroad. The county built a seven mile railroad extending from Pittsfield north to the Wabash. It was leased to the Wabash railroad and ever since it has been operated as the Pittsfield branch. The Wabash now operates one train a day over it. It formerly had more trains but the automobile has been hard on branch line railroads. When the Wabash isn't using it with its daily train the citizens run scooters over it, a scooter being a cross between a flivver and a Jona Borden bus.
Then came the state bond issue roads, Route 36, extending from Jacksonville to Quincy but missing Pittsfield by some distance. Still Pittsfield didn't stir. A county official went to a farmer living near Pittsfieid and said: If you can get me the right of way I can have Route 36 brought through Pittsfield.
“How much time can I have," asked the farmer.
By 10 o'clock that night the farmer brought to the road official the relinquishments of all the right of way needed and all of it donated. The road has been built through Pittsfield but it has not yet been extended to Quincy.
Route 36, by the way, is the only square foot of pavement in Pittsfield. But it will not be all very long. A big street paving program is underway. A new water system is being put in and the mains have been laid in the streets that are to be paved. The grading is being done. By this time next year Pittsfield will be one of the best paved towns in Illinois. It has had enough of its splendid isolation. It has shed its conservatism.
|
Work Has Started On Widening 36
Twenty-two Foot Asphalt Road Between Barry and Pittsfield
From The Barry Adage 19 November 1947
The Eiff-Johnson Construction Company has set up its plant on the site of the old gravel pit west of Barry and has already started work on the contract to widen and resurface Route 36 between Barry and Pittsfield.
The present 18 foot concrete highway will be widened to 22 feet and a bituminus surface applied over all. When finished the road will be like Route 36 at Jacksonville, smoother, quieter and safer.
The work is in charge of Mr. E.J. Eiff Jr. and Mr. Wm. Gholson and they are pushing the work as fast as they can in order to get as much done as possible before the winter really breaks. They expect to complete the job by next fall. In the City of Barry the resurfacing will begin a half block west of Decatur Street, the alley between the F.A. Gates adn Charles A. Doyle homes, and extend east to the city limits, thence on to the west edge of Pittsfield, with the exception of 2300 feet at the Carroll Hill which is not included in this work. Evidently the State plans to do something in the near future to correct the dangerous curve on Carroll Hill and this gap was not included in the Eiff-Johnson contract. Through the business district of Barry the road will have an added height of three inches for the 22 foot width, and then be tapered to the curb line. At present the work is limited to putting in new gutter and putting a crushed stone base down where the concrete is badly crushed. A binder will be added to the stone as soon as it is placed. Some idea of the amount of work that it will take to complete the job can be gathered from the following estimate given in the contract: more than 21 thousand cubic yards of earth excavation, 27 1/2 thousand square yards of concrete, 2 1/2 thousand tons of leveling binder, 16 1/2 thousand tons of bituminus concrete binder, 15 thousand gallons bituminus material, 5 thousand tons gravel or crushed stone, 10 thousand tons crushed stone base, 600 square yards pavement removed and replacment, 2 thousand feet special gutter, 1 thousand feet curb removal and gutter replacement, 9 thousand feet special gutter, 10 thousand gallons prime coat and 49 acres of seeding. According to Mr. Eiff all the asphalt work will be done out of the Barry plant and when the work gets under way next summer they will employ at least fifty men on the job. They also expect to use the Barry plant for the asphalt resurfacing of South twelfth Street in Quincy, from State to Harrison. |
